Education Unchained

What it takes to Restore Schools and Learning

Erik Lidstrom

Are we going about education the wrong way? The somewhat shocking demonstration of this book is that "we" simply cannot reform "our" schools "together". We don't actually even know what schools or education really are. Education can only be improved the same way we improve and invent things in other walks of life, through unbridled, unchained trial and error.Assembling a wealth of economic, psychological and historical evidence, Erik Lidström paints a coherent and deceptively simple picture of how we went wrong, of why we went wrong and what we can do about it. The disconcerting conclusion is that education must be set free, it must be returned to parents and to pupils. Government should have no, or hardly any role in the financing of education, in the setting of curricula or diploma, or in the supervision of schools and education.At the same time, the book is filled with optimism. By doing things very differently, we can very quickly and almost painlessly restore education and learning to a level previously unheard of.« lessmore »

Erik Lidström holds an MSc and a PhD in physics from Uppsala University, as well as an MBA from the Open University. After research at the ESRF in Grenoble, he moved to the software industry in 2000. He has worked in Britain, France, Sweden and Morocco, lately with a primary interest in complex development processes and organizational issues.

ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1- IntroductionChapter 2- The knowledge problemMarkets and why we tradeHunter-gatherers in the Great SocietyThe rules of the Great SocietyThe division of labor and the division of knowledgeThe roles of competitionQuality is not one thingWhy we cannot think ourselves towards better thingsWe can become experts on teaching but not on education reformWhy school vouchers do not workThe process of improvements is different in a free systemDemocratic decision-making is a particularly inappropriate method for improving schoolsChapter 3: The threats to improved educationReforming “our” schools is impossibleWhy we seek social conformityThe ever-present threat of paternalismThe species of the paternalists–the AnointedHow parents decideWhy parents and children will not find bad schoolsSchool as a tribal ritualOur urge to rationally plan prevents learningIt is not self-evident what education isAll-private schools are actually very affordableChapter 4: School, work and growing upNorberg’s assistantsHow we grow upPlay and schoolChapter 5: The ethics of state educationGovernment compulsion, government conformityUsing children as toolsTreating children as cattleWhat is left for the state to do?Maybe the government should verify that all become educatedMaybe the government should financially assist the education sectorChapter 6: The rise of the government school systemSwedenBritainThe Third World todayNew York StateThe five-stage rocket of compulsory educationThe flow of information stopsThe hard and magnificent 19th century government school systemChapter 7: The art, science, and nonsense of educationThe art of educationThe science of educationFolk “science”Practice makes perfectThe delusions of education reformers and pedagoguesWhy education reforms almost always make things worseChapter 8: Der Untergang–the downfall of the government school systemOverview of the decisions in SwedenThe social misdistribution of educationAgainst meritocracy and the high status of theoretical studiesImproving social skillsAbraham Lincoln’s dog’s tailEmpirical trials for the 9-year unity schoolHow education reform broke the back of the school systemAll hell breaks loseChapter 9: The downward, self-reinforcing spiral of deathThe fall in quality for academic studiesThe fall in quality for those who studied at the realskola but not at high schoolThe fall in quality for those who did not go to the theoretical realskolaWhy don’t we return to the old system?America, Britain and the spiral of death of government systemsComments on the Finnish school systemChapter 10: The kind of education we never hadUniversities in a free systemChapter 11: The negative externalities of government educationPositive externalities from educationIdle minds–government school as a source of crime and angry musicState schools as a destroyer of exceptional talentState schools as a source of irresponsibility and immaturityState schools as a source on unequal opportunityState school as a source of social disintegrationOn the unfairness having parents of different wealthChapter 12: Replanting the Beautiful TreeCivil disobediencePromoting freedom and democracyHelping Third World countriesAppendix 1 - Estimates of the fall of quality in SwedenThe fall in quality of the teachersChaos in the classroomMeasures of outcomes and some possible contributing causesThe early economic outcomeAppendix 2 - The Parable of the Citizen VehicleReferences

Those seeking to improve public schools in the US often struggle to define how they wish to make schools ‘better.’ Lidström espouses a belief that government spending has led to a decline in schools and as that funding has increased, quality has declined. He presents his ideas in 12 sections: an introduction; ‘The Knowledge Problem’; ‘The Threats to Improved Education’; ‘School, Work, and Growing Up’; ‘The Ethics of State Education’; ‘The Rise of the Government School System’; a critique of pedagogy; how he alleges government schools fail; the downward spiral in quality over time; the benefits of a market system; ‘The Negative Externalities of Government Education’; and a plan to reinvigorate schools. Though the author considers only one perspective, it is well-reasoned and passionately argued. Best for those well-versed in the issues public education in the US faces, such as upper-level undergraduates or graduate students in a seminar setting. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.— CHOICE

[T]here are surprisingly few fresh ideas on how to improve education and learning. The book by Dr. Erik Lidström brings plenty. They are both radical and proven. Radical, because he is quoting Hayek, Sowell, Weinber and calls for a free market solution to learning. And proven, because such systems worked in the past. The book is a must read for parents, teachers and policymakers in general. And it provides some just-in-time food for thought related to Mr. Corbyn’s ideas of ‘cradle to grave’ National Education Service. -Professor Žiga Turk, former Slovenian Minister of Education.— Medium

Erik Lidström has provided us with a heretical, but brilliant exposé of modern education. There is wide agreement that the modern, bureaucratic school system does not work well and is subject to a never-ending cyclical spate of reforms that often make matters worse. By combining economics and evolutionary theory with an intriguing account of the educational system and outcomes before and after government organized schooling, Lidström makes a cogent and thoughtful argument for a ground-up, market-based approach to education. No doubt, the thesis will irritate and offend many educators, but this is all the more reason to read the book and seriously reflect on Lidström's proposals.— David C. Geary, PhD, curators' professor, Thomas Jefferson Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri

The shortfalls of government-supplied education loom ever larger as time marches on. Considering radical alternatives today, however, violating more than one nostrum of political correctness, Erik Lidström takes us beyond such conventionalities to show freedom and competition are a significant part of the answer to the educational crisis of our time.— Samuel Gregg, director of research, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty

Throw away all those books on how to fix the education system. As Erik Lidström shows in this thought-provoking book, full of insights, the only way to fix education is not to fix it. Education is too important to be left to the "education experts", and should be a matter for the real experts – schools, teachers and parents.— Johan Norberg, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of "In Defence of Global Capitalism"

Education Unchained

What it takes to Restore Schools and Learning

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Summary

Summary

Are we going about education the wrong way? The somewhat shocking demonstration of this book is that "we" simply cannot reform "our" schools "together". We don't actually even know what schools or education really are. Education can only be improved the same way we improve and invent things in other walks of life, through unbridled, unchained trial and error.Assembling a wealth of economic, psychological and historical evidence, Erik Lidström paints a coherent and deceptively simple picture of how we went wrong, of why we went wrong and what we can do about it. The disconcerting conclusion is that education must be set free, it must be returned to parents and to pupils. Government should have no, or hardly any role in the financing of education, in the setting of curricula or diploma, or in the supervision of schools and education.At the same time, the book is filled with optimism. By doing things very differently, we can very quickly and almost painlessly restore education and learning to a level previously unheard of.

Erik Lidström holds an MSc and a PhD in physics from Uppsala University, as well as an MBA from the Open University. After research at the ESRF in Grenoble, he moved to the software industry in 2000. He has worked in Britain, France, Sweden and Morocco, lately with a primary interest in complex development processes and organizational issues.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1- IntroductionChapter 2- The knowledge problemMarkets and why we tradeHunter-gatherers in the Great SocietyThe rules of the Great SocietyThe division of labor and the division of knowledgeThe roles of competitionQuality is not one thingWhy we cannot think ourselves towards better thingsWe can become experts on teaching but not on education reformWhy school vouchers do not workThe process of improvements is different in a free systemDemocratic decision-making is a particularly inappropriate method for improving schoolsChapter 3: The threats to improved educationReforming “our” schools is impossibleWhy we seek social conformityThe ever-present threat of paternalismThe species of the paternalists–the AnointedHow parents decideWhy parents and children will not find bad schoolsSchool as a tribal ritualOur urge to rationally plan prevents learningIt is not self-evident what education isAll-private schools are actually very affordableChapter 4: School, work and growing upNorberg’s assistantsHow we grow upPlay and schoolChapter 5: The ethics of state educationGovernment compulsion, government conformityUsing children as toolsTreating children as cattleWhat is left for the state to do?Maybe the government should verify that all become educatedMaybe the government should financially assist the education sectorChapter 6: The rise of the government school systemSwedenBritainThe Third World todayNew York StateThe five-stage rocket of compulsory educationThe flow of information stopsThe hard and magnificent 19th century government school systemChapter 7: The art, science, and nonsense of educationThe art of educationThe science of educationFolk “science”Practice makes perfectThe delusions of education reformers and pedagoguesWhy education reforms almost always make things worseChapter 8: Der Untergang–the downfall of the government school systemOverview of the decisions in SwedenThe social misdistribution of educationAgainst meritocracy and the high status of theoretical studiesImproving social skillsAbraham Lincoln’s dog’s tailEmpirical trials for the 9-year unity schoolHow education reform broke the back of the school systemAll hell breaks loseChapter 9: The downward, self-reinforcing spiral of deathThe fall in quality for academic studiesThe fall in quality for those who studied at the realskola but not at high schoolThe fall in quality for those who did not go to the theoretical realskolaWhy don’t we return to the old system?America, Britain and the spiral of death of government systemsComments on the Finnish school systemChapter 10: The kind of education we never hadUniversities in a free systemChapter 11: The negative externalities of government educationPositive externalities from educationIdle minds–government school as a source of crime and angry musicState schools as a destroyer of exceptional talentState schools as a source of irresponsibility and immaturityState schools as a source on unequal opportunityState school as a source of social disintegrationOn the unfairness having parents of different wealthChapter 12: Replanting the Beautiful TreeCivil disobediencePromoting freedom and democracyHelping Third World countriesAppendix 1 - Estimates of the fall of quality in SwedenThe fall in quality of the teachersChaos in the classroomMeasures of outcomes and some possible contributing causesThe early economic outcomeAppendix 2 - The Parable of the Citizen VehicleReferences

Reviews

Reviews

Those seeking to improve public schools in the US often struggle to define how they wish to make schools ‘better.’ Lidström espouses a belief that government spending has led to a decline in schools and as that funding has increased, quality has declined. He presents his ideas in 12 sections: an introduction; ‘The Knowledge Problem’; ‘The Threats to Improved Education’; ‘School, Work, and Growing Up’; ‘The Ethics of State Education’; ‘The Rise of the Government School System’; a critique of pedagogy; how he alleges government schools fail; the downward spiral in quality over time; the benefits of a market system; ‘The Negative Externalities of Government Education’; and a plan to reinvigorate schools. Though the author considers only one perspective, it is well-reasoned and passionately argued. Best for those well-versed in the issues public education in the US faces, such as upper-level undergraduates or graduate students in a seminar setting. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.— CHOICE

[T]here are surprisingly few fresh ideas on how to improve education and learning. The book by Dr. Erik Lidström brings plenty. They are both radical and proven. Radical, because he is quoting Hayek, Sowell, Weinber and calls for a free market solution to learning. And proven, because such systems worked in the past. The book is a must read for parents, teachers and policymakers in general. And it provides some just-in-time food for thought related to Mr. Corbyn’s ideas of ‘cradle to grave’ National Education Service. -Professor Žiga Turk, former Slovenian Minister of Education.— Medium

Erik Lidström has provided us with a heretical, but brilliant exposé of modern education. There is wide agreement that the modern, bureaucratic school system does not work well and is subject to a never-ending cyclical spate of reforms that often make matters worse. By combining economics and evolutionary theory with an intriguing account of the educational system and outcomes before and after government organized schooling, Lidström makes a cogent and thoughtful argument for a ground-up, market-based approach to education. No doubt, the thesis will irritate and offend many educators, but this is all the more reason to read the book and seriously reflect on Lidström's proposals.— David C. Geary, PhD, curators' professor, Thomas Jefferson Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri

The shortfalls of government-supplied education loom ever larger as time marches on. Considering radical alternatives today, however, violating more than one nostrum of political correctness, Erik Lidström takes us beyond such conventionalities to show freedom and competition are a significant part of the answer to the educational crisis of our time.— Samuel Gregg, director of research, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty

Throw away all those books on how to fix the education system. As Erik Lidström shows in this thought-provoking book, full of insights, the only way to fix education is not to fix it. Education is too important to be left to the "education experts", and should be a matter for the real experts – schools, teachers and parents.— Johan Norberg, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of "In Defence of Global Capitalism"